More Innovation Lessons From P&G

by Stefan Lindegaard

We recently had a great event in my Danish network for innovation leaders. Joachim von Heimburg, who is one of the most experienced innovation practitioners in the European industry, came by for a two-hour session based on his 30 years of experience from P&G.

We touched on many issues and I have inserted a few snippets below.

• On intermediaries: Of the 10 companies present at the session, only two companies had experiences with intermediaries such as InnoCentive and they were only very brief. I was surprised by this low level of interaction. We discussed that employees often get into such experiments in order to prove such intermediaries do not work rather than trying to make it work. One reason for this is the...

Why Denmark – And Other Countries – Will Lose Their Innovation Capabilities

by Stefan Lindegaard

I recently got reasons to take my innovation perspective to a national rather than a corporate level. The questions that went through my mind were like this.

What if the behaviours of the citizens in a country determine the corporate ability to innovate? What if such behaviours directly hurt the corporate ability to innovate? A capability that is so important for the future of companies as well as countries. Or what if the behaviours hinder the chances of taking innovation to the next level?

The country I have in mind is my own, Denmark. I have long argued that Denmark does very well on innovation. Danes believe in flat hierarchies and that authorities and common beliefs should be challenged.

This is a good outset for innovation...

The People Of China: Building An Innovation Engine

by Stefan Lindegaard

I recently made another trip to China. My purpose was to meet with innovation leaders in order to build further on my understanding of the Chinese innovation community and thus on my global perspectives on innovation.

I had a couple of meetings and I did an improvised session at a company. Having met about 15 people and having spent 5 days in Beijing, I have to say that my expectations of what will happen in China grew even higher. The reason for this is the innovation people of China.

They are hungry, bright and very eager to learn. Yes, they still have a lot to learn. And many of them do not seem to have the creative mindset and the ability to think in a...

Recognizing And Rewarding Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

You need to consider your reward programs carefully before you launch idea campaigns or other innovation initiatives. You need to consider what kind of behaviour and which kind of results that should be rewarded and you need to consider how to reward this.

I believe most companies really long for an organization full of self-motivated employees that see innovation as a natural part of the business and their work. For this to happen, I believe recognition is a much better tool than financial rewards.

Such recognition should be made as public as possible and it should involve a high-ranking executive if relevant and possible. Recognition can also be accompanied by small gifts such as a dinner for two (it pays to remember the spouse of...

Leaders, Prepare For A Networked Organization

by Stefan Lindegaard

What a company knows is inside the heads of its people, and distributing this knowledge has always been a challenge. Yet, now more than ever, being able to leverage a company’s collective knowledge and experience through virtual and face-to-face networks and communities is critical to innovation. So why do such efforts fail so frequently? Here are some of the reasons I’ve identified as I’ve worked with companies on this issue:

1. Time and skills

Many of us simply do not have the time or skills to network and build relationships. Leaders, you need to give your people time to acquire networking skills and the time to invest in and maintain relationships.

2. Focus

A community will only work if it connects people who share a common...

Eco-Systems For Open Innovation: High Tech Campus and Philips

by Stefan Lindegaard

I am doing some research on Philips and their many interesting open innovation initiatives.

I came across the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven which is synonymous with open innovation. In an area of just one square kilometre, more than 7,000 researchers, developers and entrepreneurs work closely together developing the technologies and products of tomorrow. As a result, Philips Research reaps the benefits of synergy and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

According to their website, the driving force behind the establishment of High Tech Campus Eindhoven was Philips. At the end of the 1990s, the R&D activities of the company were spread right across Eindhoven. In 1998, to remedy this, Philips established the High Tech Campus to act as a single location for all its national R&D...

Why Open Innovation Matters For Market Leading Companies – And Those Aspiring To Be

by Stefan Lindegaard

A few weeks back someone told me an interesting story about Procter & Gamble and their competitors. It is well-known that P&G is the open innovation champion and their long focus on open innovation has given them an important advantage.

They get to see interesting proposals within their business areas before their competitors. In the story I heard, one of P&G competitors complained they only saw ideas and proposals that P&G already had rejected. Ouch, talk about being a second-tier choice…

This leads to a very important point on open innovation for market leading companies and those aspiring to be. The key game is to become the preferred partner of choice.

A preferred partner of choice simply gets to see the best ideas first and...

Open Innovation: Costs Higher Than Financial Benefits In The Short Term

by Stefan Lindegaard

At the website of the Belgian management school, Vlerick Leuven Gent, I found the below snippet on some research on joint ventures and open innovation.

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Researchers Dr. Dries Faems and Dr. Matthias de Visser (Universiteit Twente) and Prof. Bart Van Looy and Dr. Petra Andries (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) came to the conclusion that − in the short-term − the financial costs of innovative joint venture projects are greater than the financial benefits.

In their research, they studied the collaborative activities and the financial performance of 305 Belgian industrial companies. Collaborating with several partners does produce greater innovative strength − but it also increases the proportion of employee expenses in the added value, which in turn has a negative effect on financial performance....

Open Innovation – What Does It Mean To You?

by Stefan Lindegaard

Kurt Schneider, President and Lead Product Accelerator of Tech Bridge West started an interesting discussion on LinkedIn based on this question: Open Innovation – What does this phrase mean to you?

Dan Lingman, IP Legal Assertion team at Nortel said:

“To me, it means taking chances – a venture capitalist views his investments in a certain way – most fill fail, some will break even, a few will shine. Ideas are like that as well.

If your company isn’t willing to take a chance, and try to push people to try to go forward with their ideas, they are going to miss out on a lot – both the drek, and the big ideas.”

Jason Husk, Group Manager, Open Innovation Networks at Clorox said:...

Open Innovation Summit: Practical Strategies For Changing The Game

by Stefan Lindegaard

I look forward to deliver a pre-conference workshop as a part of the inaugural Open Innovation Summit which takes place in Orlando, Florida on December 2-4.

At the workshop, I will be joined by two corporate practitioners, Chris Thoen from P&G and Jeff Murphy from J&J. In our session, the participants will learn:

• How to identify the traits, mindset and skills needed to be successful with open innovation.

• Whether their organizations are prepared for open innovation initiatives and if not, what needs to be done to get them to the starting line.

• How to manage senior executives and “corporate antibodies” that can be roadblocks to an open innovation project. Hear how they view open innovation and how to work with or...